Avatar-incentive healthcare therapy

ABSTRACT

An avatar-incentive healthcare therapy system has a physiological monitor for generating a physiological parameter indicative of physical health. An academic test for generating a test score is indicative of mental acuity. The avatar has outward characteristics and game play capabilities proportional to the physiological health and the mental acuity so as to incentivize improved physical health and academic performance.

PRIORITY CLAIM TO RELATED PROVISIONAL APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e)to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/916,136 filed Dec.13, 2013, titled Avatar Incentive Video Game, hereby incorporated in itsentirety by reference herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Medical device manufacturers are continually increasing the processingcapabilities of patient monitors, specifically of patient monitors thatprocess signals based on attenuation of light by patient tissue. Ingeneral, such patient monitoring systems include one or more opticalsensors that irradiate tissue of a patient and one or morephotodetectors that detect the radiation after attenuation thereof bythe tissue. The sensor communicates the detected signal to a patientmonitor, where the monitor often removes noise and preprocesses thesignal. Advanced signal processors then perform time domain and/orfrequency domain processing to determine measurements of bloodconstituents and other physiological parameters of the patient.

Manufacturers have advanced basic pulse oximeters that determinemeasurements for blood oxygen saturation (“SpO2”), pulse rate (“PR”) andpethysmographic information, to read-through-motion oximeters, toco-oximeters that determine measurements of many constituents ofcirculating blood. For example, Masimo Corporation of Irvine Calif.(“Masimo”) manufactures pulse oximetry systems including Masimo SET® lownoise optical sensors and read through motion pulse oximetry monitorsfor measuring Sp02, PR, perfusion index (“PI”) and others. Masimosensors include any of LNOP®, LNCS®, SofTouch™ and Blue™ adhesive orreusable sensors. Masimo oximetry monitors include any of Rad-8®,Rad-5®, Rad®-5v or SatShare® monitors.

Many innovations improving the measurement of blood constituents aredescribed in at least U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,770,028; 6,658,276; 6,157,850;6,002,952; 5,769,785 and 5,758,644, which are assigned to Masimo and areincorporated by reference herein. Corresponding low noise opticalsensors are disclosed in at least U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,985,764; 6,088,607;5,782,757 and 5,638,818, assigned to Masimo and hereby incorporated intheir entirety by reference herein.

Masimo also manufactures more advanced co-oximeters including MasimoRainbow® SET, which provides measurements in addition to Sp02, such astotal hemoglobin (SpHb™), oxygen content (SpCO™), methemoglobin(SpMet®), carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO®) and PVI®. Advanced blood parametersensors include Masimo Rainbow® adhesive, ReSposable™ and reusablesensors. Masimo's advanced blood parameter monitors include MasimoRadical-7™, Rad87™, and Rad57™ monitors as well as Pronto and Pronto-7spot check monitors.

Innovations relating to these more advanced blood parameter measurementsystems are described in at least U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,647,083; 7,729,733;U.S. Pat. Pub. Nos. 2006/0211925; and 2006/0238358, assigned to CercacorLaboratories of Irvine, Calif. (“Cercacor”) and hereby incorporated intheir entirety by reference herein.

Such advanced pulse oximeters, low noise sensors and advanced bloodparameter systems have gained rapid acceptance in a wide variety ofmedical applications, including surgical wards, intensive care andneonatal units, general wards, home care, physical training, andvirtually all types of monitoring scenarios.

Advanced pulse oximetry is described in at least U.S. Pat. Nos.6,770,028; 6,658,276; 6,157,850; 6,002,952; 5,769,785 and 5,758,644,which are assigned to Masimo Corporation (“Masimo”) of Irvine, Calif.and are incorporated in their entirety by reference herein.Corresponding low noise optical sensors are disclosed in at least U.S.Pat. Nos. 6,985,764; 6,813,511; 6,792,300; 6,256,523; 6,088,607;5,782,757 and 5,638,818, which are also assigned to Masimo and are alsoincorporated in their entirety by reference herein. Advanced pulseoximetry systems including Masimo SET® low noise optical sensors andread through motion pulse oximetry monitors for measuring SpO₂, pulserate (PR) and perfusion index (PI) are available from Masimo. Opticalsensors include any of Masimo LNOP®, LNCS®, SofTouch™ and Blue™ adhesiveor reusable sensors. Pulse oximetry monitors include any of MasimoRad-8®, Rad-5®, Rad®-5v or SatShare® monitors.

Advanced blood parameter measurement systems are described in at leastU.S. Pat. No. 7,647,083, filed Mar. 1, 2006, titled Multiple WavelengthSensor Equalization; U.S. Pat. No. 7,729,733, filed Mar. 1, 2006, titledConfigurable Physiological Measurement System; U.S. Pat. Pub. No.2006/0211925, filed Mar. 1, 2006, titled Physiological ParameterConfidence Measure and U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0238358, filed Mar. 1,2006, titled Noninvasive Multi-Parameter Patient Monitor, all assignedto Cercacor Laboratories, Inc., Irvine, Calif. (Cercacor) and allincorporated in their entirety by reference herein. An advancedparameter measurement system that includes acoustic monitoring isdescribed in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2010/0274099, filed Dec. 21, 2009,titled Acoustic Sensor Assembly, assigned to Masimo and incorporated inits entirety by reference herein.

Advanced blood parameter measurement systems include Masimo Rainbow®SET, which provides measurements in addition to SpO₂, such as totalhemoglobin (SpHb™), oxygen content (SpOC™), methemoglobin (SpMet®),carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO®) and PVI®. Advanced blood parameter sensorsinclude Masimo Rainbow® adhesive, ReSposable™ and reusable sensors.Advanced blood parameter monitors include Masimo Radical-7™, Rad87™ andRad57™ monitors, all available from Masimo. Advanced parametermeasurement systems may also include acoustic monitoring such asacoustic respiration rate (RRa™) using a Rainbow Acoustic Sensor™ andRad87™ monitor, available from Masimo. Such advanced pulse oximeters,low noise sensors and advanced parameter systems have gained rapidacceptance in a wide variety of medical applications, including surgicalwards, intensive care and neonatal units, general wards, home care,physical training, and virtually all types of monitoring scenarios.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An avatar-incentive healthcare therapy system has a physiologicalmonitor for generating a physiological parameter indicative of physicalhealth. An academic test for generating a test score is indicative ofmental acuity. The avatar has outward characteristics and game playcapabilities proportional to the physiological health and the mentalacuity so as to incentivize improved physical health and academicperformance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-B are perspective views of a physiological monitor andcorresponding monitor screens incorporating avatar-incentives forhealthcare therapy;

FIGS. 2A-C are avatar illustrations incorporating healthcare therapyincentives;

FIG. 3 are perspective views of physiological monitors and interfaceddevices for incentivizing healthcare therapy;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of physiological monitor communications forincentivizing healthcare therapy; and

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a cloud-based physiological monitoringsystem for avatar-incentive healthcare therapy.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIGS. 1A-B illustrate a physiological monitor 100 and correspondingmonitor screens 101, 102 incorporating avatar-incentives for encouragingphysical and mental fitness. As shown in FIG. 1A, the physiologicalmonitor 100 has a handheld processing device 110, a touch screen display120, a noninvasive optical sensor 130, a sensor cable 140 electricallyand mechanically interconnecting the processing device 110 and thesensor 130, a monitor-integrated test strip reader 170 that accepts teststrips 175, one or more input keys 150 and an integrated camera 160among other features. An optical sensor is described in detail withrespect to U.S. Pat. No. 13/646,659 titled Noninvasive Blood AnalysisSystem, filed Oct. 5, 2012, assigned to Cercacor and incorporated in itsentirety by reference herein. A blood glucose monitor is described indetail with respect to U.S. patent Ser. No. 13/308,461 titled HandheldProcessing Device Including Medical Applications for Minimally andNoninvasive Glucose Measurements, filed Nov. 30, 2011, assigned toCercacor and incorporated in its entirety by reference herein. A bloodglucose monitor and sensor are described in U.S. Ser. No. 13/473,477titled Personal Health Device, filed May 16, 2012, assigned to Cercacorand incorporated in its entirety by reference herein.

As shown in FIG. 1B, in an embodiment, the touch screen display 120 hasa physiological monitor display mode 101 and an incentive game play mode102. In a physiological monitor display mode 101, the monitor displaysmeasured physiological parameters. In an incentive game play mode 102,the monitor constructs a video player avatar 180 having physical andmental strengths 190 based upon incentivizing criteria described below.In an embodiment, the avatar is inserted into physiologicalmonitor-based video games according to its strengths 190 or exportedexternally to video games running on standalone video game systems orfrom the cloud, as described with respect to FIGS. 3-5, below.

Also shown in FIG. 1B, in an incentive game play mode 102, the touchscreen display 120 presents one or more video games advantageouslyincorporating a player avatar 180 that becomes stronger and/or smarterin proportion to the physical and/or mental capabilities of the playeras an incentive for patient recovery. In an avatar communications mode,the player avatar and its corresponding physical and mental capabilitiesare communicated to an external video game system, as described withrespect to FIGS. 3-5, below.

In an embodiment, an avatar summary screen 122 is presented in the gameplay mode 102 illustrating the player's selected avatar 180 andindicators 190 of the avatar's accumulated physical strength and mentalprowess. With respect to physical strength, the physiological monitor100 is in wireless or wired communications with, for example, exerciseequipment so as to incentivize patients recovering from, say, accidentsor surgery to track physical exercise and healing progress. With respectto mental prowess, the physiological monitor 100 is in communicationswith mental skill test results, where the mental skills are eitherpresented by the physiological monitor 100 itself in a mental challengemode or input to the monitor 100 from external indicators of mentalachievements, such as student report cards and standardized testresults, to name a few.

In other embodiments, the physiological monitor 100 measures, recordsand tracks a person's physiological measurements such as resting heartrate, cholesterol and blood pressure among other physiologicalparameters. The person's avatar becomes physically stronger according toa health index based upon these parameters. Likewise, if a person passescertain quizzes or has a report card with straight A's, that person'savatar gets stronger and smarter for games simulating physicalcompetition, such as racing, sports and combat. Advantageously, thephysiological monitor 100 helps patients recovering from a stroke,provides a sports training tool for athletes and functions as a studentteaching device, as a few examples.

FIGS. 2A-C illustrate avatars incorporating healthcare therapyincentives. As shown in FIG. 2A, a physiological monitor 110 (FIG. 1A)allows a patient or other user to construct an avatar 201. The avatar'sclothing or other external characteristics may overtly display theavatar's physical or mental strength 190 (FIG. 1B) as earned by thepatient via improved physiological wellness or mental fitness testsmeasured by the monitor 110 (FIG. 1A) or provided externally, asdescribed below. In an embodiment, the avatar has clothing 210 thatreflects earned physical/mental accomplishments/improvements. In anexemplar embodiment, the avatar's belt color 212 indicates earnedphysical strength and the avatar's tunic or dress color 214 indicatesearned mental strength. For example, a black belt 212 and a brightcolored tunic 214 indicates an avatar with high physical and mentalstrength as the result of high physical and mental test scores and otherreal-world physical and mental accomplishments. As shown in FIG. 2B,earned avatar physical and mental strength are rewarded through videogaming, such as avatar combat, races and other player contests. As shownin FIG. 2C, avatar rewards may also be displayed on emails, Internetposts and other electronic communications.

FIG. 3 illustrate physiological monitors and interfaced devices forincentivizing healthcare therapy. The video game may be incorporatedwithin one physiological monitor 301 for single player games orincorporated within linked physiological monitors 301, 302 formultiple-player games, as described with respect to FIG. 4, below.Alternatively, a monitor 301 may be interfaced with an external videogame system 320 that resides locally or in the cloud, such as an onlinegaming center 540 (FIG. 5). Physiological data for constructing anavatar's physical strength may be derived by a physiological monitor301, such as described with respect to FIG. 1, above, game play on anexternal video player 320, data from wearable activity devices such asfitness bracelets 310, data directly downloaded from a memory devicesuch as a USB key 340 or from physiological data, game play, testscores, report cards 510-540 (FIG. 5) accessed via the cloud 10 (FIG.5), as described with respect to FIG. 5, below. Similarly, mentalprowess may be assessed by mental ability tests provided by thephysiological monitor 301, such as described with respect to FIG. 1,above, or from mental prowess data gathered via the cloud or otherexternal sources, such as school grades and standardized test scores, asdescribed with respect to FIG. 5, above. Video game play on a monitor301 may also be enhanced by interfaced game play devices, such as ajoystick 330.

FIG. 4 illustrates physiological monitor communications forincentivizing healthcare therapy. A cloud-based monitor communicationssystem 400 has a cloud server 10 in communications with variousphysiological monitors 100. In this manner, monitor users 20 may freelynetwork with each other whether located in various hospitals/clinics410, at home 420, on the street 430 or any location remote from thecloud server 10. Data is transmitted from monitors 100 to the cloudserver 10 via wired (e.g. LAN) or wireless (e.g. Wi-Fi) local networksto wide area media, such as Internet cable, telecommunications (e.g. 3G)networks or cellular networks 440. These wide area media, in turn, arein communications with the cloud server 10, which calculatesphysiological parameters or simply provides patient-to-patientcommunications including conversations or interactive gaming throughtheir avatars, as described above.

FIG. 5 illustrates a cloud-based physiological monitoring system foravatar-incentive healthcare therapy. A healthcare monitor 560, such asdescribed with respect to FIG. 1 (100), above, incorporating earnedavatar incentives, also described above, may be in communications with aphysiological data processing center 510, testing centers 520, schools530 and online gaming centers 540. Physiological data for determiningavatar physical strength may be determined from the physiological dataprocessing center 510 and received by the monitor 560. Likewise, datafor determining avatar mental acuity may be determined from standardizedtesting centers 520, e.g. from standard tests such as PSAT, SAT, GMAT,GRE etc. Avatar mental acuity may also be determined from variousschools via authorized access to a particular student's grades 530.Further, earned avatar incentives can be exported to and used withingames provided by online gaming centers 540. Avatar-incentive healthcaretherapy has been disclosed in detail in connection with variousembodiments. These embodiments are disclosed by way of examples only andare not to limit the scope of the claims that follow. One of ordinaryskill in the art will appreciate many variations and modifications.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic system for providing healthcaretherapy, the electronic system comprising: a first computing devicecomprising a hardware processor, a touch screen display, a first portconfigured to connect with an optical sensor, and a second portconfigured to receive a measurement strip; wherein the hardwareprocessor is configured to determine a physiological parameterindicative of physical health of a person based on measurements acquiredfrom the optical sensor and the measurement strip; wherein the hardwareprocessor is further configured to acquire an academic test scoreindicative of mental acuity of the person; wherein the hardwareprocessor is further configured to generate an avatar having outwardcharacteristics and video game play capabilities proportional to theperson's physical health and academic performance so as to incentivizeexercise and study; and wherein the avatar is simulated on the touchscreen display.
 2. The electronic system according to claim 1 whereinthe avatar outward characteristics comprise and article of clothinghaving a color indicative of at least one of the person's physicalhealth and academic performance.
 3. The electronic system—according toclaim 2 wherein the avatar game play capabilities comprise an apparentincrease in avatar physical performance in proportion to an actualincrease in the person's physical health.
 4. The electronicsystem—according to claim 3 wherein the avatar game play capabilitiescomprise an apparent increase in avatar mental performance in proportionto an actual increase in the person's academic performance.
 5. Theelectronic system—according to claim 4 further comprising communicationsbetween a physiological monitor and at least one external device so asto import information regarding the person's physical health and mentalacuity and export information regarding the avatar.
 6. The electronicsystem—according to claim 5 wherein the physiological parametercomprises at least one of heart rate and blood pressure.
 7. Theelectronic system—according to claim 6 wherein the academic test scoreis determined using at least one standardized test.